Electrically conducting multiple panel structure



Feb. 14, 1950 H. A. MOMASTER 2,497,507

ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTING MULTIPLE PANEL STRUCTURE Filed Oct. 14, 1947 v 24. 19 Z6 $57 I II 46 1e 25 22 b 2 x \SQZZ IN V EN TOR.

ATTORNEYS Patented Feb. 14, 1950 ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTING =MULTIPLE PANEL STRUCTURE I Harold A. McMaster, Toledo, hi0,..assignor ,to

Libhey-Qwens-Ford GlassQompanm, Toledo, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Applicationflctober 14, 19.41,: Serial No.;779,=73,3

2 Claims.

The present invention relates to spaced multiple panel units, and more particularly to mul tiple glass sheet glazing units whichinclude an airspace between the glass sheets and in which 2 Bunsen flame. When this was done, the crystals vaporized and the vapors therefrom formed a conductive film on the glass. This film, however, was somewhat foggy and, varied in thickat least one of the glass sheets is. electrically 5 ness over the sheet conducting. This application is a continuation I then discovered that the fogging of the in part of my copending application, Serial No. glass could be considerably reduced by producing 460,838, filed October 5, 1942, now-Patent No. a film with liquid stannic chloride vapors carried 2,429,420. in a stream of carbon dioxide gas or other fluid.

It is an object of this invention to provide a In this method, a sheet of glass was first heated glazing unit of the above character in which to redness-and the stannic chloride vapors then one ormore surfaces of at least'oneof the glass directed upon the glass .in a stream of carbon sheets in the unit is provided with a thin, transdioxide gas in the form of a pluralit of small parent coating or film possessing the property jets. By way of illustration, a 6 in. x 8 in. sample of electrical conductivity, which coatings are l was coated in this manner and volts A. C. curclear, hard and tenacious and of uniform thickrent was applied to electrodes arranged along ness, are in intimate contact with the glass or the 8 in. edges of the sample for 2 minutes after other surface of the panel, and whichwill retain which time the glass had reached a temperature these properties under adverse conditions. of 260 F. in the open air.

A multiple glass sheet glazing unit,-;including 9 "I also found that anhydrous stannic chloride an electrically conducting glass sheet of the dissolvesin absolute alcohol without deposition, character herein described, may be employed for whereas if water alone is added to the stannic a variety of purposes such as, forexainple, in chloride undesirable fuming occurs and the burglar alarm systems, heating elements, winliquid is unstable and hard to handle as well as dows for exteriors or interiors of buildings and failing to produce a satisfactory conducting so forth. A special use is theapplication of coating. However, if the alcohol is first added to the multiple panel conducting units for glazing the stannic chloride and the water then added the Windshields and/or window openings in airto this mixture, no fuming occurs and there is planes and other aircraft. In fact,.they may be provided astable liquid which can be sprayed advantageously employed for glazing all kinds so onto glass to form a conducting coating. For of openings wherever adequate clear vision is example, I dissolved one part anhydrous stannic required, particularly under adverse weather chloride by volume in one part absolute alcohol conditions. Thus, these units can be used as by volume and then added onepart water by highly eflicient de-icing windows in highaltivolume to this solution.- When this mixture tude bombers in which icing of the windowsis a .35 was sprayed (Fig- 9) on glass heated to 550 to major problem. 650'C., a clear conductingfilm was formed.

My invention is based, among other,- things, on Further efforts to improve the uniformity of my discovery that tin chlorides, includinghythe=film led to immersing the hot glass in vardrated stannous chloride and hydrated stannic ious liquids. I discovered that a satisfactory chloride, can be used to produce exceedingly :40 coating liquid could be produced by combining thin transparent coatings or films on glass or 1 part glacial acetic acid, 1 part absolute alother vitreous surfaces and that such. coatings cohol and 2 parts stannic-chloride by volume and or films have good electrical conducting propheating until the boiling point was between erties. C. and C. I Stannic chloride, when used as During tests with dry salts it was observed above described, will produce conducting films that .an excellent clearconducting ,film jformed not only-on glass but on a variety of vitreous where glass was exposed to both dry stannic substances such as glazed porcelain; unglazed chloride vapors and air. 1 porcelaimceramic bodies, fused silica, etc.

In my work with tin chlorides. ,I discovered In practicing this method, the glass was heated that when hydrated stannous chloride is, vapor- :50 close "130 the softening point and then immersed ized'onto the surface of. hot glass-it forms ,a thin in the above liquid. The glasswas allowed to 'filmphavlng good conducting;:properties. ,This remain in the liquid. for "only a few seconds, was -accomplished by placing :a small. nua-ntity wh reu onit was removed and. cooledin the open of stannous .chloridesalt crysta1s::on asheetni .air-.. Of coursethiscc nesma carriedout glass andheating :the,;gla:s1;to rednessiina 5 in a suitable-dearer even if des r d; If th chiei' constituent of the liquid is stannic chloride, which has a low specific heat and heat of vaporization, cracking of the glass will be minimized. The films produced were clear and of a uniform thickness. They were also very hard and tenacious and not harmed b washing with scouring powderswhich do not scratch glass or by bufiing with rouge. The light transmission of a half wave-length thick film applied as described was found to be 92%, while the resistance was approximately 200 ohms between parallel electrodes spaced by a distance equal to their length.

The film of the invention was found to consist substantially of tin oxide and its conductivity was found to increase with thickness. Films of various thicknesses of the order of a half wave length of light have proved to be both clear and transparent and sufliciently conductive for the present purpose.

Since the dipping method described above was found to produce very satisfactory coatings, one

way in which such method may be carries. out

in producing the unit of the invention has been 4 illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of one type of airplane in which a multiple glass sheet glazing unit produced by the present invention may be used;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view through a double glaz- 'ing unit produced in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2, showing a mod- 'ified form of multiple glass sheet glazing unit;

Fig. i is a plan view of a sheet of conducting "glass provided by the invention for use in a multiple panel unit;

Fig. 5 is a vertical transverse section through 'Fig. 4;

6 is a vertical transverse section through a sheet of glass having conducting coatings applied to both sides thereof;

Fig. 7 is a sectional view illustrating one form of apparatus which may be used for heating the i glass sheet;

Fig. 8 is a sectional view illustrating the dippin of the heated sheet in the coating liquid; and

Fig. 9 is a diagrammatic view showing the conducting coating being sprayed onto a heated glass sheet. 7 Wi ierence now to the drawings, there is "shown ig. l an airplane it of the type hava fuselage H with a forwardly located en- 'gineiZ and propeller 53. The plane is also provided with upper and lower wings Hi and i5 and a cockpit having the transparent closures it which substantially completely enclose the pilot and enable him to have a wide sphere of vision. The transparent closures l6 include the windshield which is located in front of the pilot and the windows arranged along opposite sides of the plane. It will of course be appreciated that the airplane herein disclosed is simply one type of plane with which the present invention maybe Zusecl and that the invention is adapted for use :bodying the invention. The unit 5' of Fig. l is made up of two sheets 'of glass lT-an d I3, positioned in spaced face to face relation with one another, and maintained in this position, by means of a suitable separator strip I9 arranged around and secured to the marginal portions of the glass sheet to provide a unitary structure having an air space 29 between the glass sheets.

Units of this character have proved desirable wherever it is important to reduce heat transfer through, and to prevent condensation of moisture and formation of fog, frost or ice upon, the glass in glazed op'enings. Thus, they have the efiect of greatly retarding the escape of heat therethrough from the inside of a building or vehicle during the winter or in cold atmospheres. This is due to the fact that the air space 29 between the glass sheets, whether filled with air or gas, or exhausted to provide a partial vacuum,

is an exceedingly poor conductor of heat so that a multiple sheet glazing unit possesses much greater insulating properties than a single plate or sheet of glass.

' 'According to this invention, the air space 20 ing the separator to a metallized coating on the glass.

It is also an aim of this invention to provide glazing units of the above character having greatly increased efiiciency by the provision of a clear transparent electrically conducting coating applied to a surface of one or more of the glass sheets, and which coating can be connected to a supply of electrical energy in a manner to be more clearly hereinafter described, for the purpose of heating the glass sheet. The glass in the unit may be heated in this way to almost any desired temperature depending on the use to which the unit is to be put. For example, it may be heated high enough to remove, or to prevent the formation of moisture, steam or ice on the glass surface.

In Fig. 2 an electrically conducting coating 22 is shown as applied to the inner surface of the outer sheet of glass ii. Ordinarily speaking, it is desirable to have the electrically conducting coating located on the inside of the unit in order to avoid shocks and possible short circuits, although this may not be necessary in all cases.

Fig. 3 illustrates another form of multiple sheet glazing unit that can be produced in accordance with my invention. In addition to the double glazed unit shown in Fig. 2, it will be understood that units containing three or more sheets of glass are also contemplated by the invention. Thus, in the unit iii" of Fig. 3, there are shown three sheets of'glass 23, 24 and 25 held in proper parallel spaced relationship by' the separators 26 and 21' The panel 23 in this embodiment is a sheet of laminated safety glass made up of'tw'o sheets of glass 29 and 3E! and an interposed layer of thermoplastic 3! all bonded together'under heat and pressure to form a composite structure.

Any of the panels I! and I8 of Fig. 2'or'the panels 23, 24 and '25 of Fig. 3 can of course be laminated glass, tempered glass, or ordinary sheet or plate g'la'ss as desired, and the electrically conducting coatings 22 can be applied to either one or both surfaces of any of the glass sheets in the unit.

In Figs. 4 and 5 is shown a sheet or plate of transparent glass 33 for use in the units of Figs. 2 and 3 and which is provided upon one surface thereof with an electrical conductive coating 22 applied thereto in accordance with the present invention. Carried along the upper and lower edges of the glass sheet are metal channel membars 34 and 35 constituting electrodes contacting the conducting coating l8 and having attached thereto the electric connections 36 and 37 respectively.

In Fig. 4 is illustrated a sheet or plate of glass 33 having the conducting coating 22 applied to one face thereof and a second conducting coating 22 applied to the opposite face thereof.

In applying the conducting coatings 22 and 22', the glass sheet J3 is first heated to approximately the point of softening of the glass and this may be accomplished as shown in Fig. 7, wherein the sheet is suspended within a furnace 38 by relatively small hooks or tongs 39 engaging the sheet adjacent its upper edge. The furnace 38 may be of any suitable type but is here shown as being heated by the electrical heating units 40 and 4| arranged along opposite side walls thereof. Disposed inwardly oi the heating units are baflie plates 42 and 43 which define themselves therebetween a heating chamber 44 within which the sheet is arranged. After the glass sheet has been properly heated, it is withdrawn from the furnace and immediately immersed in a bath of the coating liquid 45 contained in a container 46 (Fig. 8). As explained above, the heated glass sheet is immersed in the liquid for only a few seconds whereupon it is removed and cooled. Of course, if only one face of the glass sheet is to be coated as in Fig. 5 then only that face of the heated sheet is immersed in the coating liquid. This can be accomplished either by masking the opposite face or by bringing the glass sheet into contact with the liquid while supporting the sheet in a horizontal position. The coated glass sheets shown in Figs. 5 and 6 can be embodied in a multiple glazing unit comprising two or more sheets separated to provide an insulating space or spaces therebetween as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

As above described, the bath of liquid 45 may consist of a mixture of glacial acetic acid, absolute alcohol and stannic chloride. However, another liquid found to produce satisfactory conducting coatings consists of anhydrous stannic chloride containing an excess of chloride dissolved therein and alcohol. Alcohol alone tends to crystallize with the stannic chloride but if chlorine is present a suitable liquid can be made upon boiling the solution. By way of illustration, I prepared a satisfactory liquid consisting of one part anhydrous stannic chloride containing chlorine dissolved therein and one part alcohol. The solution was boiled.

As indicated above, when desired, these coating liquids can be applied to the heated glass sheets by spraying, as indicated in Fig. 9, instead of by dipping.

Sheets or plates of glass such as shown in Figs. 5 and 6 after being coated and supplied with suitable electrodes in the manner above indicated are then combined with other glass sheets, either coated or uncoated, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3 to form the multiple glass sheets glazing units of the invention.

It is to be understood that the forms of the invention herewith shown and described are to be taken as illustrative embodiments only of the same, and that various changes in the shape, size and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the subjoined claims.

I claim:

1. A window comprising a plurality of transparent panels, one of which is a sheet of laminated glass and another of which is an unlaminated sheet of glass, means arranged around and secured to the marginal portions of said panels for maintaining the same in spaced relation, a clear transparent electrically conducting coating of tin oxide on that surface of said unlaminated sheet facing said laminated glass sheet, and spaced electrodes in electrical contact with said coating.

2. A window comprising a plurality of transparent panels, one of which is an outside sheet of laminated glass and another of which is an inside unlaminated sheet of glass, means arranged around and secured to the marginal portions of said panels maintaining the same in spaced relation, a clear transparent electrically conducting coating of tin oxide on that surface of said unlaminated sheet facing said laminated glass sheet, and spaced electrodes in electrical contact with said coating.

HAROLD A. McMASTER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,757,769 Halbig May 6, 1930 2,189,465 Haley et al Feb. 6, 1940 2,205,522 Fix June 25, 1940 2,429,420 McMaster Oct. 21, 1947 

